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Great Christmas Hurricane
The Great Christmas Hurricane was a highly unusual storm that caused very severe damage to doowntown areas of Tampa, FL, causing great loss of life due to its very small size and Christmas Day landfall, with tropical storm force winds only extending 20 miles (32.2 km) from the centre and hurricane force winds extending a mere 6.5 miles (10.5 kilometres) from the centre and a radius of maximum winds of just 4 miles, with the eye consequentially being less than one mile (1.6 km) wide at certain points in its life. Formation On December 19, 2021, a small trough of low pressure collided with a highly unusual and weak tropical wave south of Cuba. Convection was very low around the system until early on December 22, when a pocket of very low wind shear and unusually high SSTs caused the system to begin developing convection rapidly. By December 23 06:00 UTC, the system only had a 20/30 chance of development from the NHC. Despite this, the system rapidly organized, with a recon plane finding a centre at roighly 17:00 UTC. This resulted in the system being declared Tropical Depression Nineteen at 18:00 UTC on December 23. The system was extremely small. First stages of life Initially, the storm remained stable as the low-level circulation popped in and out of the convection due to varying wind shear and air moisture levels. However, the storm entered another pocket of low wind shear, high air moisture, and relatively high OHC and RH for the time of year 18 hours later and intensifiation began. Due to the system's extremely small size, intensification was extremely rapid. Explosive intensification The storm began explosively intensifying at 12:00 UTC on December 24, when a second recon mission found winds of 45 mph (72 km/h). This resulted in the storm being upgraded to Tropical Storm Rose. At this time, it was expected that the storm would make landfall as a 60 mph (97 km/h) tropical storm. However, the storm instead explosively intensified due to unusually good conditions and an extremely small size, with the wind speed jumping 20 mph (32km/h; 17 kt) every six hours for 18 hours, beginning at 60 mph (97 km/h) at 18:00 UTC December 24, and ending at 120 mph (104 knots; 193 km/h), by 12:00 UTC on Christmas Day, December 25. At the time of landfall, the hurricane had an eye just 900 to 1000 metres (0.9 to 1.0 km; 0.55 to 0.62 miles) wide, with a radius of maximum winds of just 4 miles. Landfall The storm made landfall at 13:30 UTC on December 25, 2021, in downtown Tampa, Florida, with winds of 120 miles an hour (regularly gusting to 150 mph) and a pressure of 954 mbar, with a relatively slow forward speed, causing severe damage in the areas covered by the extremely small radius of maximum wind. The storm weakened thereafter, crossing Sutherland Bayou and making a second landfall with winds of 120 miles an hour and a pressure of 956 mbar, crossing Florida at a moderate speed while weakening thereafter, although it did also cross Lake Tarpon and make a third landfall with winds of 115 miles per hour and a pressure of 959 millibars. The system weakened to a Category 2 hurricane at 18:00 UTC, September 25, a Category 1 hurricane at 00:00 UTC, September 26, and a tropical storm at 06:00 UTC, September 26. Post-landfall The storm exited the coast of Florida at 16:30 UTC on September 26, 2021, with wind speed of 50 mph and a pressure of 1000 millibars. Some restrengthening occurred with a mid-level eye forming and the winds increasing to 65 mph (104 km/h) and the pressure dropping to 992 millibars by midnight on September 27. However, a nearby extratropical cyclone and negative environmental conditions prevented any further restrengthening, and Rose weakened to a tropical depression on September 27 before being absorbed. Effects The effects of the storm were extremely localized but extremely significant in areas of Tampa, FL. The storm surge, which ordinarily would have only been two to three feet (60-90 cm) for a storm of this size, was amplified to 6-8 feet (1.8-2.4 m) due to geography and low forward speed. This caused many drownings due to the unexpectedly high storm surge. In addition, evacuation rates were very low due to the storm's very small size (making predicting where evacuations were necessary difficult), the end of the season being almost a month before the storm's formation, the Christmas Day landfall date making it more unlikely for people to evacuate, and the unexpected strengthening. In fact, there were 3,500 deaths throughout Florida due to these factors, despite the storm only affecting 30 to 50,000 people with hurricane force winds. Retirement Despite the relatively low damage of $357 million due to the very small size, the name Rose was retired in March 2022 and replaced by Roslyn for the 2027 season. Credit to Gied for the sim Category:Christmas hurricanes Category:Unusual tropical cyclones Category:Category 3 hurricanes Category:Deadly storms